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Organ organist
From the Flames
On May 10th 1941, the church was badly damaged in an air raid and the Rothwell organ was completely destroyed. Fortunately, many of the oldest parts of the building survived and were incorporated into the newly restored church which was rebuilt to its original design. At this time, a specially designed organ chamber on the north side of the church was built.
The present organ was donated to the Temple in 1954 by Lord Glentanar who had commissioned the instrument in 1924 for the ballroom in Glen Tanar House, near Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. It is a large four-manual instrument built by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, an organ firm which has been responsible for the instruments in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey and the Royal Festival Hall.
The Glentanar organ incorporated many of Arthur Harrison’s tonal characteristics and included the builder’s latest electro-pneumatic action (except for the manual to pedal couplers) and a ‘player mechanism’. Lord Glentanar had taken a close interest in its design, and it seems that he was much impressed by two Harrison organs: the Caird Hall Dundee and St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow.
In 1954, the pitch was raised to c=523.3 and a 32ft extension to the pedal ophicleide rank was added. The organ chamber enables the organ to be laid out over three levels in two bays. Behind the Double Geigen display pipes of the western bay are the Tuba, Great reeds and Choir organ. The Great and Swell organs are at mid-level in the eastern bay above the console, and behind the case (installed in 1966 and based on drawings of the 1684 Smith case). The upper level spans both bays and contains the Solo organ and pedal reeds (which are still encased in their own Swell box with the shutters removed). The other stops of the Pedal Organ are distributed throughout both bays.
Between 1973 and 1976 the electrical system was modernised, solid-state switching was installed, and a general overhaul was made. Further work included re-organising the composition of the Swell Mixture and the remodelling of the Great Harmonics Mixture (17.19.21.22) as a quint Mixture (19.22.26.29) in 1989. Also at this time, the Great reeds, which previously spoke on 15" wind pressure, were revoiced on the lower wind pressure of 7" and were, along with the Tuba, resited in the western bay.
Further work was carried out in 2000. The console was dismantled and taken to the organ builder's works in Durham and completely overhauled. The jambs have been re-arranged to a more symmetric design, octave couplers have been added to the Swell and Choir divisions, and a tuba drawstop added to the Choir, duplicating the stop from the Solo division. The solid state capture system was updated, giving 128 general memories (with a stepper system) and 8 divisional piston memories. The number of reversible pistons was expanded and the old composition foot pedals were replaced with a new toe-piston sweep with the Harrison 'walnut' pistons.
The organ is still in the care of Harrison & Harrison ltd and can be heard most Wednesdays during term time at the lunchtime organ recital.
The Present Specfication:
16 Bourdon
8 Large Open Diapason 8 Small Open Diapason
8 Geigen 8 Hohl Flute
8 Stopped Diapason 4 Octave
4 Wald Flute 2 2/3 Octave Quint
2 Super Octave IV Mixture
8 Tromba 4 Octave Tromba
I Choir to Great
II Swell to Great
III Swell Octave to Great
IV Solo to Great
V Great Reeds on Choir
VI Great Reeds on Solo
8 Open Diapason
8 Stopped Diapason
8 Salicional
8 Vox Angelica
4 Principal
2 Fifteenth
V Mixture
8 Oboe
16 Double Trumpet
8 Trumpet
4 Clarion
VII Tremulant
VIII Octave
IX Sub Octave
X Unison Off
XI Solo to Swell
8 Dulciana
8 Claribel Flute
8 Lieblich Gedact
4 Salicet
4 Faluto Traverso
2 Harmonic Piccolo
III Dulciana Mixture
16 Cor Anglais*
8 Clarinet
8 Tuba (from Solo)
XII Octave
XIII Sub Octave
XIV Unison Off
XV Swell to Choir
XVI Solo to Choir
*extra octave of pipes at the top
8 Viol d'Orchestre
8 Viole Céleste
8 Harmonic Flute
4 Concert Flute
8 Orchestral Hautboy
16 Double Orchestral Trumpet*
8 Horn
8 Tuba (unenclosed)
XVII Tremulant
XVIII Octave
XIX Sub Octave
XX Unison Off
*extra octave of pipes at the top
32 Sub Bourdon (ext. of Great Bourdon)
16 Open Wood (A)
16 Open Diapason (ext. of Great Large Open)
16 Geigen (from Great)
16 Dulciana (from Choir)
16 Violone (from Solo)
16 Bourdon (from Great)
8 Octave Wood (A)
8 Flute (ext. of Great Bourdon)
4 Octave Flute (ext. of Great Bourdon)
32 Double Ophicleide (B)
16 Ophicleide (B)
16 Orchestral Trumpet (from Solo)
16 Bassoon (from Choir)
8 Posaune (B)
XXI Choir to Pedal
XXII Great to Pedal
XXIII Swell to Pedal
XXIV Solo to Pedal
XXV Great to Pedal combinations coupled
XXVI Pedal to Great combinations coupled
XXVII Pedal to Swell combinations coupled
XXVIII Generals on Swell Toe Pistons
8 toe pistons to the Pedal & Swell organs
8 general thumb pistons and general cancel
2 general thumb pistons for the couplers
Setter button
Sequencing thumb pistons and toe pistons (Next and Previous) operating general pistons
Reversible thumb pistons I-IV, XI, XV-XVI, XXI-XXIV
Reversible toe pistons II, XXII
Balanced expression pedals to the Choir, Swell and Solo Organs
The manual compass is CC to c, 61 notes; the pedal CCC to g, 32 notes
There are 128 memories for the general pistons, and eight memories for the divisional pistons
The blowing and humidifying equipment is by Watkins & Watson Ltd
Pedal: Flues 3 to 5 inches. Reeds 4 inches and 15 inches
Choir: Flues 3 inches. Reeds 4 inches
Great: Flues 4 inches. Reeds 7 inches
Swell: Flues & Oboe 3.75 inches. Chorus reeds 7 inches
Solo: Flues and Orchestral Hautboy 5 inches. Horn, Trumpet & Tuba 15 inches
Action Pressure: 12 inches